A daredevil grandmother of four has completed almost 500 paragliding flights with her adorable dog.
Corinne Dhenin, 68, from Geneva, loves jumping off mountains with her furry friend Phoebe as a passenger.
She climbs with the pooch at her heels, sometimes reaching peaks as high as 8,000 feet.
Corinne estimates she’s done nearly 500 jumps with one pooch – more than 230 with Phoebe and the rest with her other pooch, Megabyte.
She also loves hang gliding, speed riding – a ski sport – and piloting ultralight aircraft.
Grandmother Corinne Dhenin, 68, from Geneva, has made almost 500 paragliding flights with her dog
Corinne estimates she’s done almost 500 jumps with a pooch – more than 230 with Phoebe (pictured) and the rest with Megabyte
She climbs with the pooch at her heels, sometimes reaching peaks as high as 8,000 feet
Corinne showed off her toned body on the beach in 2021 at the age of 66
And Corinne says people criticize her when she involves the dog, but she doesn’t care – because Phoebe, a boxer, loves it.
She said: “I started with Megabyte on very small slopes, our first flight was only a meter in the air.” Then I took her higher and higher.
“We ended up doing flights over about 900 meters, from the top to the bottom of various mountains.
“The first time I let Phoebe fly, she was six months old and was sitting in front of me – she panicked and tried to climb up me.”
“But she soon realized she was fine and wasn’t going to fall.” And now, on Flight 230, she’s gotten used to it.
“Basically we fly almost every day, since I’m retired I just do that – we climb and fly together.”
“When a lot of people find out I’m flying with my dog, their reaction is that it’s not fair to the dog – I want to make it clear that my dog is happy to come with me.”
“She has the best life, she’s out hiking in the mountains all day and I do it for her – I’m not selfish or anything, the dog loves it as much as I do.”
Corinne, who previously worked as a manager for a market research company, began hang gliding in 1981, in the early years of the sport.
Due to its inconvenient nature, she switched to paragliding, which she says works well with solo mountaineering.
The mother of three and grandmother of four has now been paragliding for over 15 years and has completed 1,300 flights.
She says she also enjoys speed riding, which she describes as “half skiing, half flying,” and has even traveled from France to Morocco in an ultralight aircraft – a gasoline-powered hang glider.
Corinne was photographed with young Phoebe in 2019 before they started paragliding together
She also loves hang gliding, speed riding – a ski sport – and piloting ultralight aircraft
Corinne says people criticize her when she involves the dog, but she doesn’t care – because Phoebe, a boxer, loves it
The mother of three and grandmother of four has now been paragliding for over 15 years and has completed 1,300 flights
She says she has a close relationship with her dog and they spend almost 24 hours a day together – so it only makes sense that the two fly together too
And she says that despite her age, she covers a large amount of vertical distance, having climbed around 200 mountains and gained a total of 205,000 meters of elevation gain.
She says she has a close relationship with her dog and they spend almost 24 hours a day together – so it only makes sense that the two fly together too.
Corinne said: “I live in a small village in the mountains at 2,200ft so I do a lot of sport – I started with hang gliding and then moved on to paragliding.”
“I decided it would be nice to have my dog with me while climbing mountains, and the first dog I taught to fly was Megabyte.
“She was okay with it, she got used to it, but she got too old to climb, so I retired her.”
Corinne, who previously worked as a manager for a market research company, began hang gliding in 1981, in the early years of the sport
Corinne and Phoebe posed for a snapshot at Trou de la Mouche 2453m in the Aravis Mountains
Corinne posed for a snap while climbing the 4810m Mont Blanc in 2009
“There are a few people who fly here with their dogs, but that’s very rare – I know three people who do that, but they have smaller dogs than me, so it’s a different matter.”
“A boxer weighs about 30kg, so it’s a very technical thing. You have to carry the weight until you take off, but once you’re in the air, it’s fine.”
“Every time she sees me getting the equipment ready in the morning, she stands at the door and won’t let me leave without her.”
“We do a three to four hour climb directly from the house, then the descent takes 10-15 minutes and we land back in front of the house.”
“The camaraderie is really important.”
“Once we do a climb, she’s exhausted for the rest of the day, so she sleeps and I’m pretty exhausted too.”
